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ORIENTAL INFLUENCES IN MEXICO 



BY 



WALTER HOUGH 



f;.- 



' h 'i 



ORIENTAL INFLUENCES IN MEXICO 
By WALTER HOUGH 

Putting aside the mythical or problematic accounts of ancient 
landfalls, which to be sure are a fascinating field of conjecture, 
firm ground is reached at the period when the Spaniards governed 
the Philippines as a dependency of Mexico. 

In former times several waves of Malay colonization swept 
over the Philippines, displacing one another and the original popu- 
lation of woolly-headed Aetas, but later the Chinese overran and 
conquered the islands. After a time the Chinese yoke was 
thrown ofT by the Filipinos, who, being undisturbed for many 
years, became inert and fell easy prey to the land-grabbing Span- 
iards of the sixteenth century, Sebu was taken in 1564-65 and 
Manila in 1571, fifty years after the discovery of the islands by 
Magellan. 

Early in his reign Philip II saw that voyages to the Orient 
could better be made from New Spain. In 1545, Ruy Lopez de 
Villalobos was sent from Mexico, but his. expedition, though it 
reached Sebu, was unsuccessful. Then Philip sent Miguel Lopez 
de Legaspi, a Mexican, who sailed from Navidad in 1564 by the 
middle route. •"-^ J 

Legaspi was a navigator a'nd warrior of the stern stuff of the 
age — the Dewey of 327 years ago on the same scene — and to 
him the Spanish Crown ever owed the Philippines. An impor- 
tant result of Legaspi's expedition was the discovery of the 
route back to Mexico. Contrary to orders, one of the ships of 
the expedition, commanded by Alonzo de Arellano, turned back 
from the Philippines and sailed northward to the islands north of 
Japan, crossed to the Pacific coast off Columbia river, sailed 

66 



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hough] oriental influences IN MEXICO ^7 

southward, and brought up at the port thereafter to receive the 
golden stream of the East on its way to Spain. 

Other complications also made it almost imperative for the 
Spaniards to reach the Philippines through Mexico. The con- 
tests between them and the Portuguese for the possession of the 
earth had resulted in the famous division of Pope Alexander VI 
at the beginning of the sixteenth century. This cut off the Span- 
iards from the former route to the East, when the discovery in 
1520 of the Straits of Magellan by that great navigator opened 
another route, which after several trials proved long and unsatis- 
factory, and the sailing from Mexico was decided on. 

In I575> Guido de Labazarries was made governor of the 
Philippines, and from'this time the islands were ruled by the vice- 
roys of Mexico. Later the Spanish Crown resumed direct control 
and appointed governors from the mother country, but commerce 
was carried on with the Philippines until the separation of Mexico 
from Spain. 

It is an important fact that one of the first cares of Labazar- 
ries was the establishment of trade and commerce between China 
and Manila. This commerce, which was only interrupted by 
events, had been carried on for centuries, bringing many Chinese 
traders from the mainland not over 460 miles away. 

Many references by De Morga to the commerce carried on 
between the Philippines and New Spain show that the inter- 
change of products was begun early and that Mexico and the 
Orient were closely connected.' The people of, Mexico in this 
way became familiarized with the products of the East before a 
similar state of affairs prevailed in Europe, and the going and 
coming of the viceroys, priests, soldiers, sailors, and traders could 
not have failed in introducing to Mexico useful plants, manu- 
factures, etc., that have come to be regarded as indigenous 
products. 



' The Philippine Islands, by Antonio De Morga, London (Hakluyt Society), 
1868. 



68 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 2, iqoo 

Manila has long been an emporium of commerce. De Morga* 
says : " The merchants and traders form the greater part of the 
residents in these islands, on account of the quantity of merchan- 
dise which flows in to them (in addition to the produce of the 
country) from China, Japan, Maluco, Malacca, Siam and Cam- 
boja, Borneo, and other parts, with which they make their ventures, 
and every year embark them in ships which sail for New Spain." 
The same authority gives a general account of the articles form- 
ing the basis of the trade, and the list is interesting as showing the 
great variety which might be selected for trade with New Spain. 

This commerce so increased that it worked injury to the trade 
between Spain and her possessions in Peru and Mexico. In 
1599 it was suggested, and later acted on, to limit the amount of 
Mexican money to be used in the Philippine trade in any one year 
to $500,000. Just how effective this law was and how much it 
hampered the free movement of commodities between the coun- 
tries it is difficult to gather. Perhaps like the prohibition of gov- 
ernment officers engaging in trade, it was a good thing if enforced. 

It is true in any case that each year for centuries two vessels 
were dispatched from Manila to New Spain, one a stately galleon, 
the other a large ship as a convoy on which prohibited goods 
were carried in a clandestine way. At the time of the arrival of 
these ships they were joined by other craft coming from Peru and 
Chili, and it was customary to hold a great fair for thirty days at 
Acapulco, where commodities from all parts of the world were 
bartered. Thus Acapulco became the great distributing point 
whence the commerce of the East was sent to South America. 
Acapulco, Mexico, and Vera Cruz were the cities in Mexico 
directly touched by this trade. 

During De Morga's time duty of three percent on the mer- 
chandise brought from China amounted to $40,000, and the two 
percent duty on goods shipped to Mexico reached $20,000, while 
the duty from Mexico to the Philippines was $8000. 

' Ibid., page 336. 



hough] oriental influences IN MEXICO 69 

The population of Manila, like that of most seaports having 
extensive commerce, was of very mixed character, the bulk of the 
foreigners being Chinese, who, while viewed with suspicion, were 
recognized as being indispensable because they were industrious 
workers at all employments and demanded small wages. The 
same is true at this epoch in the Philippines, and there seems to 
be as little reason for excluding the Chinese now as there was in 
the sixteenth century. Owing to trouble with the Japanese in 
1597, "the governor sent to Japan all the Japanese who were set- 
tled in Manila (and they were not a few) and those who came in 
trading ships." ^ The Chinese have maintained their hold in the 
Philippines to the present day in spite of various massacres and 
the stringent enactments to which they have been subjected. 
There has been a decided mixture of Chinese blood with the na- 
tives, forming the class known as mestizos. 

The question may be asked, then, whether the centuries of 
communication between the East and Mexico have had any 
marked effect upon either. Perhaps the first marked intrusion of 
the East into Mexico is to be found in the flora of the country. 
It was the custom of the priests who invariably accompanied or 
closely followed the Spaniards on their conquests, to select plants, 
seeds, and other curious objects for introduction into other lands 
and as presents to royalty. The world is greatly indebted to the 
missionary fathers for the dissemination of a multitude of use- 
ful and beautiful plants whose presence in various unexpected 
localities has often perplexed botanists. 

The Spanish leaders of explorations were not less active in the 
search for strange products to illustrate to the rulers the remark- 
able character of the countries which they gained for Spain. 
That the Pueblo Indians of our Southwest early possessed sheep, 
horses, cattle, peaches, wheat, etc., is due to the friars of the seven- 
teenth century, to whom also may be attributed many of the 
plants of the East now thoroughly at home in Mexico and South 

^ De Morga, op. cit., page 85. 



70 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 2, 1900 

America, The return of the viceroys and merchants, who had 
made fortunes in the Philippines, was no doubt likewise a potent 
factor in enriching the flora of Mexico by the plants brought from 
the Orient to beautify their estates. 

Wherever the Chinese go they carry with them their native 
country. In our cities, whenever feasible, they grow their favor- 
ite lily, water-chestnut, and gourds. In one of the southern states 
a farm is devoted to raising and canning Chinese vegetables for 
the use of our Chinese colony. This gives opportunity for the es- 
cape from cultivation of plants that later on may spread widely. 
There is no reason to doubt that in Mexico this process has gone 
on for a long time. 

With these statements in view it does not seem anomalous to 
find the cocoanut on the coast of Mexico with the attendant 
manufactures connected with the tree, as houses from the trunk, 
thatch from the dead leaves, cups from the nut, toddy from the 
flower-stalk, and various other products. The toddy is called 
tuba, a Tagal word, and its collection and preparation and the 
other arts grouped about the cocoanut palm might be transported 
bodily from Colima to an island in the Pacific without jarring the 
scene. 

The presence in America of the banana Avhich, like the cocoa- 
nut, has been fancifully accounted for as the result of some pre- 
historic dissemination, bears witness to the contact with the East. 
The banana, which can be propagated only by living plants, came 
to Mexico by way of Manila within the last 300 years and has 
been widely distributed over the tropics of America. The same 
is true of the plantain. * 

The mango, the most popular fruit in Mexico as well as one of 
the most delicious, is also an immigrant from the Philippines. 
This handsome and useful tree is a native of India, and is now 
grown in parts of Mexico having suitable climatic conditions. 
Its dense, dark green foliage gives a grateful shade around the 
palm-thatched jacals of the Indians in the tropic and subtropic- 



hough] fiRIENTAL INFLUENCES IN MEXICO 7 1 

landscapes of Mexico. There are a number of varieties of 
the mango in the temperate regions, the one most prized being 
the large yellow subacid kind called " mango de Manila." 

Another East Indian fruit, called by the Mexicans pina-nona 
{Monstera deliciosa), is naturalized in the tropic and subtropic 
zones of Mexico and is frequently offered for sale in the markets. 

The list of useful plants introduced from the East into Mexico, 
probably by way of the Philippines, could be extended, but 
enough has been presented to show the strong current which be- 
gan to flow at the close of the sixteenth century. Of ornamental 
plants and trees also there are not a few naturalized in Mexico. 
Among these may be mentioned the Chinese umbrella tree, the 
pepper tree {Schinus mollis), whose habitat is Australia or India, 
but which flourishes in Mexico as does the ailanthus in the United 
States. In the beautiful plazas, a graceful feature of every town 
and city, one sees rare exotics whose home is in the East. 

The debt of the Philippines to the New World must be ac- 
knowledged in this connection. The century plant, the prickly 
pear, and the pineapple came from Mexico, the last furnishing 
fiber for the piiia cloth for which the Philippines are famous. 
The Spaniards early sought to introduce the grape and the olive, 
fig, pomegranate, and other trees from Castile into the Philip- 
pines. Only pomegranates and grapes were successful, and it was 
found that green vegetables of Spain did not produce seed, an 
experiment showing lack of judgment. 

If, as it seems true, Mexico is indebted to the East for many 
plants, one should look for traces of that contact among the arts 
of' the country. Search for objects of this kind is one of the most 
difficult of undertakings. The disintegration of aboriginal popu- 
lations under contact with the higher races leaves little except the 
thrum ends of former arts, giving scanty material for restoration. 

A number of evidences have been observed, one of which, the 
making of tuba, or palm wine, has been noted. Three kinds of 
rain-coats were seen in use in Mexico by the writer: {a) the coat 



72 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST ^ [n. s., 2, 1900 

made from pieces of natural texture out of the spathes of palm 
sewed together; {U) the coat consisting' of an oblong mat of palm 
leaves which may also serve as a bed or be rolled up and carried 
on the back, and {c) the coat which outside resembles a thatch, 
the inside showing the construction by an ingenious looping and 
knotting of strips of palm leaf with or without attachment to a 
cord. This last coat envelops the body, extending down below 
the knees and is tied about the throat. The resemblance of this 
garment to those of China and Japan is striking, and is not super- 
ficial, having points of similarity of construction which appear to 
indicate that this particular variety of rain-coat was borrowed 
from the East. In the Philippines there are worn palm rain-coats 
apparently similar to those of China and probably introduced by 
the Chinese, since the Malays do not employ this form. 

Certain grooved stone mauls or beaters for the manufacture 
of bark cloth or paper found in Mexico, seem to point to the 
migration of an art to America from Polynesia, before the Con- 
quest, by way of eastern Asia across Bering strait. The stepping 
stones are the Indo-Pacific islands, Japan, the northwest coast of 
America, and southeastern Alaska, Mexico, Central America, and 
South America. There seems also to have been an introduction 
of the grooved club of wood {tapa beater) into Costa Rica and 
Honduras from African sources through slaves, who brought into 
America the marimba, a series of wooden tablets with gourd 
resonators mounted in a frame and struck with hammers to pro- 
duce music. On the other hand some forms of the Mexican 
marimba are similar to the Malay instrument in not possessing 
resonators, which shows derivation from the East. 

A discussion of the origin of the musical bow has recently ap- 
peared. It is generally agreed that the musical bow is not an 
American invention, and that its presence in the west may be at- 
tributed to importation from Africa. It is likewise found among 
the Malays, who also probably derived it from African peoples. 
Curiously the fact is brought out that no stringed instruments 



HOUGHJ ORIENTAL INFLUENCES IN MEXICO 73 

were known to the American aborigines prior to the Conquest,' 
so that all instruments of that character found among the native 
people may be assigned to sources in the Old World. 

The machete resembles the jungle knives of the East, and it is 
possible that there may be kinship or community of origin. The 
introduction of iron into Mexico was by the Spaniards, but 
Eastern implements of iron may have reached portions of Mexico 
before those of Spain. 

The primitive rope-twisting tool in use in Mexico may be from 
the Philippines. This device consists of a billet of wood revolving 
by one end on a movable axis held in the hand, the revolution of 
the billet twisting the thread attached to it near the axis. The 
wide range of this simple twisting appliance renders it difificult to 
trace its origin, but there is strong presumption that it came 
from the East into Europe or Mexico. 

The houses of the Indians in some localities of Mexico show 
marked traces of foreign influence. For instance, at Ometepec, 
near the western coast, where there are many negroes, the houses 
are circular after the African style. It is likely that all the cir- 
cular houses in Mexico are of African origin, as the native houses 
are rectangular. The jacals of the Totonacos of Jalapa, with 
their high thatched roofs having the profile of a truncated pyra- 
mid, resemble strikingly the houses of the East Indies, but it is 
hardly possible to say that the architecture is not indigenous. 

A few American games have afifinity with those of the Orient. 
Mr Culin has traced the analogue of the Hindu pac/nse, under the 
name /«/<?/(?, from the ancient Aztecs to the existing Pueblos of 
New Mexico. 

It is well known that various foreign elements have been in- 
corporated into the population of Mexico during historic times. 
The central plateau shows the marked effect of immediate contact 



' O. T. Mason : Geographical Distribution of the Musical Bow, American Anthro- 
pologist, Nov., 1897. Henry Balfour: The Natural History of the Musical Bow, 
Oxford. 1899. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




015 990 366 7 ^ 

74 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., 2, 1900 

with the Spaniards in the deterioration of the dominant tribes of 
that region and their fusion into the great complex called lin- 
guistically "the Mexican family." On the east and west coasts 
the tribes are less modified by Spanish influence, and in the 
sierras and south of latitude 20° the natives remain vigorous and 
but slightly modified, some tribes in the mountains preserving 
their primitive state. 

In the tropical region one finds the introduction of foreign 
races most noticeable. The difficulty of securing native labor to 
work on the plantations, railroads, etc., has led to the employ- 
ment of great numbers of Chinese, negroes from the West Indies, 
and Kanakas or other Polynesians. During the colonial period 
the plantations of Mexico were worked by slaves from ev'ery 
clime, felons, and impressed labor from the native tribes. It is 
necessary to take into account the effect of these intrusions of the 
blood and arts of the Mexicans, and in them it is known to be of 
profound importance. 

That there has been a grafting of Chinese and especially of 
Negro on the Mexican tribes is evident. The writer has observed 
a number of mestizos of Chinese and Mexican Indians, finding the 
cross virile and healthy, quite different from the Eurasians, and 
partaking much less of Chinese than of Mexican characteristics. 
As in Manila the union is always with Chinese males. The Chi- 
nese mixture is perhaps small, and the common terms by which 
race mixtures are known in Mexico are applied to mixtures of 
Spaniards, Indians, and Negroes. The names are Mestizo, Mu- 
lato, Zambo, Castigo, Morisco, Zambo prieto, Espanol, and Salta 
atras of the primary mestizos. The secondary mestizos are called 
Calpan mulata, Chino, Tenti en el aire, Lobo, No te entiendo, 
Gibaro, Ahi te estas, Albarrazaso, Cambujo, and Zambo (of the 
sixth blood).^ 



1 R. E. Cicero, in Catdlogo de la Coleccion de Antropologia del Museo Nacional, 
page 86. 



